Two of our tracked funds have recently revealed in filings with the SEC that they’ve taken large new passive positions in a couple of stocks. Hal Mintz’s SABBY Capital has made a move into another health stock, that stock being BIND Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BIND), in which they’ve reported ownership of 1.39 million shares, 6.85% of all Common Shares. Meanwhile, Dmitry Balyasny (pictured below)’s Balyasny Asset Management has revealed a 5.17% stake in Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU), amounting to ownership of 14.03 million shares.
For SABBY Capital, their move into BIND Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BIND), follows their recent bullish move on Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO), which admittedly wasn’t a huge investment given the nanocap nature of that stock, which was trading at just $0.13 at the time. In BIND they’re getting a stock on the rebound after a calamitous 2014 that saw it tank over 60% to end the year trading at just $5.40.
BIND Therapeutics Inc has rebounded 12.78% thus far in 2015, with much of that rise being accounted for on January 8, a day after they announced the latest results from their ongoing Phase 2 study of BIND-014, a nano-medicine cancer treatment that targets PSMA (a clinically-validated target in prostate cancer) in non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The most recent results followed November 19 results that met their primary objective, but were seen as less promising. Those results triggered a steep drop over the next two weeks, with the stock falling over 25%.
In addition to BIND-014, BIND has two other Accurin (targeted therapeutics) treatments in pre-clinical testing. They’ve formed a number of collaborations in recent months, including with AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), which will see them develop Accurins based on those company’s proprietary compounds.
There was limited activity among our funds in BIND Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BIND) throughout 2014, as it struggled to keep its head above water. James A. Silverman’s Opaleye Management had the largest position as of September 30 with 450,000 shares, while James E Flynn’s Deerfield Management had 274,000 shares.
Balyansny Asset’s latest move doesn’t come as a surprise given its recent interest in energy stocks. The fund, which was founded in 2001, employs a macro investing strategy that results in a high degree of turnover in its equity portfolio, which was valued at $12.92 billion as of September 30. The fund opened nearly 500 new positions during the third quarter of 2014, though the majority of them weren’t nearly as prominent as their newest one.
As with their recent large new position in Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), their investment in Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) comes after a rough stretch for the stock due to plummeting oil prices. Peabody is down 52.31% over the past six months, which meant they actually fared better than Oasis, which tumbled 66.85% over that same period. Prior to that, Balyasny revealed a bullish new stance on NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NYSE:NSH) back in October, the parent company of NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE:NS), whom Balyasny also took a position in during the third quarter of 2014.
Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) is a thermal coal mining company which owns interests in 28 coal mines located in Australia and the United States. Their most recent quarterly guidance came in below expectations, with an expected loss per share of $0.32 to $0.39, as opposed to analysts estimates of a $0.24 per share loss. They likewise slashed their dividend from $0.085 per share to just $0.0025 per share in an effort to save money. Despite an initial drop following the results, the stock has rebounded strongly throughout February, up 21.19%.
Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) was one of the top picks of David Iben’s Kopernik Global Investors, representing 11.49% of their equity portfolio as of September 30, with 3.39 million shares. They had raised their position 91% during the previous quarter. Daniel Bubis’ Tetrem Capital Management also had a large 2.03 million share stake in the company, though that represented a smaller percentage of their much larger equity portfolio.
Disclosure: None
